Tale Seventeen: Eric Sauer - DT-6800HM Daughtress High Mobility - The Unification of Africa
The burst of 90mm machinegun bullets from the red and blue Fire Wallaby tore through the Jenice's titanium alloy armour surrounding it's cockpit. The green former Space Revolutionary Army mobile suit sank to the ground and fire into flames. Much to Eric Sauer's surprise the two remaining Vulture mobile suits were slowly retreating from the battle. From his experience Vultures always retrieved any fallen mobile suits even if it couldn't be repaired the parts were too valuable to allow them to fall into the hands of an enemy. Ultimately Eric didn't really care as long the Vultures didn't return. His town was fairly small and innocuous just a gathering of people who all desired to live in peace. He couldn't see how a Vulture would possibly benefit from raiding the town. Vulture attacks in the past had galvanised the population into jointly purchasing the Daughtress Fire Wallaby that Eric now piloted. When he wasn't piloting the old mobile suit he was a mechanic at the town's small mining complex.
"Nice work Eric," crackled through through his cockpit's radio, "We are getting good at this,"
"I'd rather not have to do this at all Rosa," replied Eric as he brought the Fire Wallaby to rest. "Any more movement out there?"
"I'm still getting the reports from the outlying observation posts but it looks like they've cleared out," reported Rosa the de facto controller of the town's military operations. She directed the operations from a small instillation perched atop a cliff overlooking the town. "Hey Eric, when you've stood down lets go t..."
"Go where Rosa?" asked Eric. The girl was so scatter brained she'd forget her own head one day. "Come on girl, don't leave me hanging in suspense. Rosa?"
Sighing to himself he brought the Fire Wallaby around to get a good look at the command centre. To his surprise there was a column of smoke rising from the site.
"Rosa! Rosa! Answer me!" he yelled over the radio. "Command centre respond! Damnit" Moment later a series of explosions rocked the town sending smoke and fire racing through the wooden structures.
"What the hell is this? Is it the Vultures?" They were rhetorical questions because he was never going to get an answer. "No, this is far too well organised for Vultures."
Suddenly the threat indicators to his left started screaming. Without even thinking he threw the high mobility mobile suits into evasive manoeuvres. Seconds later a 500mm cannon round flew through the air where he had been. As soon as he recovered his sense he turned to face the new threat. On a low ridge in the distance he could see six mobile suits. His computer identified them as three Daughtress types and three Daughtree Weapon types.
"Vultures? No, not those colours...the Federation?" he said half to himself. Memories of fifteen years ago flooded back. He'd been just five years old when the Seventh Space War came to Earth. He had been living in one of those unfortunate areas where the Space Revolutionary Army landed on Earth. The Federation had brutally assaulted the invading rebels with little regard to the local inhabitants. The ghostly form of Daughtress mobile suits surrounded by flames still haunted his nightmares. "Not again you bastards, not again!"
He threw all the power he could into his Fire Wallaby's hover system and sped off towards the enemy. The Earth Federation mobile suits had an advantage in the fire-power of their Daughtress Weapons. However all that firepower was useless if they couldn't hit their target. He could see the three regular Daughtresses fanning out to try and coral the Fire Wallaby into the sights of the Weapons. Eric, however, was having none of that. He kept the chunky mobile suit moving as best he could and constantly avoiding the incoming fire. Long ago the Fire Wallaby had had a flamethrower powered off the suit's reactor. Unfortunately it had been removed from Eric's Fire Wallaby so he was left with just a 90mm machinegun and his beam sabre.
The Fire Wallaby closed with blistering speed upon the nearest Feddie Daughtress. The pale grey mobile suit sprayed wildly with its 90mm machinegun but came not where near hitting Eric's suit. Eric meanwhile was far more accurate. He had spent hours training to shoot his machinegun at top speed. His well timed burst caught the Daughtress in the head completely destroying the camera system. A second volley caught the Federal machine on the right side of it's chest causing the metal giant to crash to the ground.
The three Daughtress Weapons began backing off slowly while the other two Daughtresses closed in. These two coordinated their fire better to hem Eric in. They succeeded in channelling him in towards them. He really wasn't in the mood to play games with the Federal machines. He let rip a rather length burst of machinegun fire that blew off the left leg of one of the Daughtresses. Unfortunately at the same time it emptied his magazine. As he began the process of reloading the other Daughtress sprayed bullets all other the place. Eric tried to avoid them but to his absolute horror a ricochet hit and destroyed the Fire Wallaby's right arm. The small explosion sent his 90mm machinegun flying off into the dust clouds created by his own hover engines. Swearing loudly and repeatedly Eric activated his beam sabre and changed down the remaining Daughtress. Screaming bloody murder he sliced the Federal mobile suit in half around the waist. The suit's armour plating barely resisted and the blade cut through.
Eric was panting from the exertion of the fight. He felt tired, oh so very tired but he knew he had to keep going. There might yet still be survivors in the town and he couldn't let those three Daughtress Weapons escape. His computer showed them making pretty good time considering their reduced speed. However they would never be able to out run his Fire Wallaby. He powered down the beam sabre to conserve its battery life and set off after his prey. What Eric didn't realise was that he wasn't the only hunter on the field of battle that day. He didn't even see the two brand new Valient mobile suits sweep down out of the clouds and pump six beam rifle shots into his Fire Wallaby from behind. The old Earth Federation never played fair and the new one wasn't going to either.
End of the Tale